Rev. Dr. Kwabena Opuni-Frimpong - General Secretary of Christian Council
Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By
William Yaw Owusu
Monday, January 6, 2014
Hullabaloo surrounding the controversial
circumstances of the sale of Merchant Bank Ghana Limited to Fortiz Equity Fund
does not appear to end.
In what can be described as ‘an action too late’,
the Christian Council of Ghana has asked the government to explain the reasons
why the once vibrant financial institution was sold to Fortiz without providing
adequate information to the public.
“The government / SSNIT should provide adequate information
of what made selling a public asset like Merchant Bank a better deal for
Ghanaians,” the council said in a communiqué it issued at the close of 2013.
The communiqué jointly signed by Rt. Rev. Francis
Amenu and Rev. Dr. Kwabena Opuni-Frimpong, Chairman and General Secretary
respectively, specifically made the Merchant Bank issue a sub-topic for
discussion apart from national issues such as road accidents, education,
health, the environment, economy, corruption, electoral reforms, and the FDA
versus Tobinco Pharmacy fracas.
According to the Christian Council, the government
needs to explain what made Fortiz’ offer “better than that of the First Rand
and others.”
“The government should explain to Ghanaians why it
decided to go ahead to sell Merchant Bank to Fortiz Equity Fund despite the
controversies surrounding the entire deal and the public outcry that came with
it.”
The communiqué also urged political parties
particularly the NDC and NPP to “stop the partisan manner in which they discuss
the Merchant Bank sale in order to help the ordinary Ghanaian to appreciate the
real issues about the sale.”
Electoral
Reforms
The council also tasked the Electoral Commission (EC)
to work closely with all stakeholders particularly political parties to “undertake
to undertake electoral reforms, with inputs from the religious bodies among
others.”
It said the EC should be able to prepare a voters
register at the right time to enable the political parties to review and factor
it into their election preparations.
The council also urged the EC to develop “a more
structured and systematic recruitment and training of election officials and an
appropriate regulations together with a code of conduct be developed for all officials including the volunteers.”
It also asked the political parties to avoid the
politicization of national effort towards reforming the electoral process and
advised the media to make “deliberate efforts to reform its programmes and
publications to avoid the polarization of the electoral system.
Tobinco
vrs FDA
The council waded into the fracas between the
regulator and the pharmaceutical giant, commending the Ministry of Health and
the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health for their efforts in intervening
in the issue.
It however, said “the effort to resolve the issue
should be hastened in order to restore the dwindling fortunes of Tobinco
Pharmacy.”
The council also urged the FDA to use its offices to
facilitate Tobinco and other related companies to become more viable to be able
to compete with those in other parts of the world adding “we should take the
necessary efforts to protect indigenous industries by helping them meet
international quality standards.”
The council tasked Tobinco to ensure that it takes
the necessary efforts to meet the required FDA regulations in the production
and distribution of drugs and added that “the regulatory authorities should
ensure that the necessary sanctions are applied objectively to any entity when
they go contrary to applicable standards.”
Corruption
The communiqué asked the government to explain why
it had not executed some of the recommendations of the Public Accounts
Committee and also investigate and prosecute officials involved in the
misappropriation of over GH¢2billion by public officials as contained in the
Auditor General’s Report.
It also asked the government to come clean on the
status of its promise to retrieve monies wrongfully paid to Waterville and
Isofoton as judgement debts and form contracts with SADA, GYEEDA and GRA.
It said the government’s decision to publish
contracts above GH¢5million with recurring multiple budgets in the media was
commendable and also commended the government for launching the Code of Ethics
for Ministers of state and political appointees.
The communiqué urged the public to expose corrupt
public officials and urged Christians to bring their Christian values to bear
in their places of work.
Economy
The council said the current economic conditions is
making it difficult for businesses to thrive and that had worsened the
unemployment situation and poverty levels of the people.
“The Bank of Ghana, as matter of urgency, should
take steps to reverse the depreciation of the cedi against the major trading
currencies, such as the dollar.”
It tasked the government to strive to create the enabling
environment for the private sector to thrive through the provision of tax
incentives and asking the banks to provide low interest loans.
Environment
The Christian Council again urged traditional
leaders to partner the government to flush out miners whose activities continue
to cause destruction to the environment.
It called for the streamlining of galamsey activites
and tasked the assemblies to join the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to
implement strategies to save the environment.
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